Letter: If we really love our troops

Editor: President Bush has known for more than two years that his administration has been pursuing policies that could qualify as war crimes under both federal and international law.

In a Jan. 25, 2002, memo, White House Council Alberto Gonzales advised the president on "the threat of domestic criminal prosecution" under the War Crimes Act, passed by Congress in 1996. Gonzales urged, and Bush adopted as policy -- a flimsy end run around federal laws.

The real scandal at Abu Ghraib prison is not what President Bush referred to as the "failures of character" of a small group of American soldiers at Abu Ghraib. The real scandal is that the Bush Administration wanted to covertly torture prisoners and get away with it! (Prisoner abuse is also widespread and systemic in American prisons.)

America should be a leader in human rights -- not dodging Geneva Conventions, the Torture Convention and the War Crimes Act! The damage wrought by this two-year Bush administration conspiracy to perpetrate and cover up illegal brutality is difficult to assess. It is certain that it undoes decades of military leaders' efforts to prevent future My Lais.

If we really love our troops, instead of merely sending them a little care package, as many are thoughtfully doing, we should do something substantial -- we should bring them home from Iraq soon and get them out of harm's way.

This kind of officially sanctioned torture also compromises intelligence gathering which could save American lives. Tortured prisoners will confess to anything.

These disturbing atrocities, including murder, at the hands of intelligence officials are far removed from the "college prank" analogy preached by the far-right, extremist talk show hosts Hannerty, Limbaugh and others -- ministers of disinformation and apologists for Bush administration lies and felonious activities.

A close look behind the scenes reveals this pre-emptive American invasion to be a war for oil, U.S. multinational corporate profits and political domination of a region, not "freedom and democracy" -- as claimed by the "chicken hawk" neo-cons, who dominate the Bush White House.

If we love our troops we, as Americans, must restore democracy here at home. How can we export democracy when we don't even exercise it here at home? We must overturn the non-democratic, highly-repressive elements of the so-called Patriot Act which mirror the COINTELPRO excesses of the 1960s.

We must demand an end to the censorship of dissident, patriotic voices -- from journalists to musicians to filmmakers -- critical of the disastrous policies of the current administration. Local radio stations won't even play the classic, "Fortunate Son" as a fitting-tribute to the blue-blooded, Alabama Guard-absent -- George W. Bush.

We must demand an end to the oppressive and sometimes brutal (FTAA-Miami) "police state" type crackdown on legitimate, non-violent protest in our streets -- supposedly protected by the Constitution.

If we really love our troops we must call for the orderly withdrawal of our troops from this bloody quagmire -- which has increased terrorism according to Amnesty International and other human-rights organizations. (Deaths, injuries or significant property damage by terrorists escalated by 90 percent in 2003.) The root causes of this terrorist upsurge go unaddressed by the Bush White House and Osama bin Laden remains at large.A timely and orderly withdrawal from Iraq is both the smart and the patriotic thing to do!

Regime change at the ballot box in November may be the only way to reel in the out-of-control Bush administration, restore American democracy and defeat terrorism.